Hamlet

The first time I read Hamlet was in senior year of high school. It wasn't my favorite piece of literature ever, but in my opinion it was pretty good as far as Shakespeare goes. Now, after reading it again, my opinion on it still stands: Hamlet is one of my least favorite characters I have ever read about. For some reason I find him cowardly and pathetic. As I read the play I kept going back and forth in my mind, Is Hamlet really crazy? Or is he just faking it and using it as an excuse? Honestly I don't even know if I could give an answer to either of those questions because I simply do not know. When I was reading it this time, I tried to look at the story through the Sigmund Freud critical approach that says Hamlet likes his mother a little too much. And I have to admit, with that approach in mind, there are points in the play where it does seem like that. I'm still not one hundred percent sure I buy that theory, but I'm willing to consider it. Which, in my personal opinion, is just another strike against Hamlet in my book. It's like he's everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Hamlet is one of the most sporadic and unpredictable characters I've ever encountered, but in this instance I don't really mean that in a good way. I know a lot of people sympathize with Hamlet and claim he's a victim of outside sources--which I do agree with to some extent--but to me he's still just a tragic character who needs to get his act together. The question posed in class today was, "Why does Hamlet delay?" Naturally we came up with a lot of different reasons for Hamlet's delay in killing his uncle, but personally I think he was just scared. He seemed so driven and determined to do it, yet never actually executed a plan. Until the very end but by then it was too late, as Hamlet himself was already dying. So basically in conclusion, I didn't find myself sympathizing with Hamlet very much. I found myself criticizing and questioning him, every move he made and every word he said.